blazing star
by heavens to bikini kill
Summary: International superstar of a duelist. CEO of a multimillion dollar corporation. Assassination attempts and the green light that we all should believe in. KaibaxOC. (yaoi) [complete]
1. Prologue

blazing star.  
  
A Yu Gi Oh fan fic by Heavens to Bikini Kill  
  
-------------------  
  
Prologue  
  
-------------------  
  
When I turned eighteen, I decided that nothing would be cooler than learning how to smoke.  
  
Insignificant and passe to you, but it is all the world to me. What could be more striking than the world's top duelist, walking up to the Battle City Finals with a Malboro dangling carelessly out of his mouth?  
  
Mokuba talked me out of it, along with the growing stress that came with running Kaiba Corp. So I spent all of that tournament thinking about how I needed to do something to change my life.   
  
Most people think I was only focused on the God cards. Not true. Life was getting boring at eighteen, something that smoking would never solve for.   
  
Then I met Kenji under the most unusual circumstances, circumstances that would take pages and pages to describe for you.   
  
He, for the sake of another romantic cliche, captured my heart and he never let it go.   
  
Kenji, you see, turned out all right. In the end, he was still the same free man with the stars in his eyes and the wind in his hair, who threw his hands up to the sky as he walked down that road that most would call life. Much like Gatsby, he believed in the green light: that beacon of hope and heart that would lead anyone who saw to a different world, in which all we knew would be glorious and true, singing our hearts out as an announcement to all the world that we were alive! and free! and open! He lived his life like a blazing star, far too brilliant for the rest of us.  
  
Kenji wasn't bad, just like he wasn't good. He didn't need to be pinned down with words like "love" and "hate", he exuded an energy to every person within his radius, and you knew what you were to him. He was a paradox, a wonder, a long summary, everything under the one sun that is the center of our own little universe.   
  
What he did doesn't matter, it never did matter, and it took me an eternity to realize that he was more than a man with a gun and a license to kill.   
  
Yes, Kenji did turn out all right in the end. But the outside world, with its sin and lies and deception, that was what got him. He unknowingly absorbed that corruption since the day he was born, and it grew like a cancer, a cancer that was desperate to destroy the blazing star. In the end, that envy, that impureness annihilated him, scorched him to piles of sparkling ashes that would blow away into eternity to be caught in people's eyes, wiped away, and then soon forgotten.   
  
I've got a speck of that dust caught in my heart forever.  
  
-----------------  
  
Disclaimers go here: original character x Seto (isn't it obvious by now?), slashslashslashslashslash, possible lemons and/or limes (I'm seriously thinking this one over...hentai has a tendency to trash up literature), and a serious draught of humor from me. Which is rare. I normally prefer being funny, so I consider this piece a challenge. Sorry that the prologue's short...later chapters will hopefully be longer.  
  
Basically, I'm not trying to go for angst. I want a good romance fic that isn't fluffy, isn't trashy, and isn't angsty. I cannot properly write happy smiley endings unless I'm doing humor, but I don't want people leaving with tears. I want a pretense of sadness, because life hardly ever is happy, but hope. Yes, it does sound kinda emo-scene-core, doesn't it? Like something composed by The Juliana Theory or The Early November. (They suck by the way, I hate emo bands with boys and their jet black ugly hair.) I want this to be more...Pretty Girls Make Graves or Valley Jones, you know?  
  
I will appreciate all reviews, and flames too. 


	2. One

blazing star.  
  
A Yu Gi Oh fan fic by Heavens to Bikini Kill  
  
One  
  
-----------------  
  
Off to kill another international superstar. Kenji, like most other folks, hated his job.   
  
There were multiple explanations as to why Kenji bothered to become, and to stay, an assassin. One could link it to his childhood, when he had so many areas of expertise (a regular Renaissance man), that his counselor told him to choose one or he'd never get a job. Someone else, upon closer examination, would claim that it was because few careers would allow you to work for yourself, and only for yourself. Another person, walking in on the conversation, would argue that it was because Kenji was just damn good at killing people.  
  
That was a talent that Kenji always hated. The talent was why he was sitting at a Starbucks (they have them everywhere, even in Japan), sucking on a cigarette like it was his lifeline, staring at a small photograph of a man who Mr. Takashi called Seto Kaiba. He was supposed to die within a week.   
  
He was cute, Kenji decided. His hair looked awful, but something about his eyes captured him. They were absorbing, almost obsessive. He was hungry, hungry for power, for money, for...love? Kenji chewed on that thought for a while. He was usually right about people's desires, but this one seemed different from Mr. Takashi's description of Kaiba. "He's greedy, insensitive, and he implements illegal and unfair business practices."  
  
That meant that Takashi wanted Kaiba out of the way so he could dominate the game world. But who was Kenji to judge? The man was paying him good money, giving Kenji the first job he had in a year. Assassins just weren't that much in demand anymore.   
  
Kenji took another thoughtful puff of his cigarette, and placed the photo away. He needed a train ticket to get to Domino.   
  
----  
  
The window went from a blur of greens and blue to one of shades of gray. Domino was drab and ugly like all other metropolises that seemed to be spreading and taking over the face of the planet. Environmentalists weren't as crazy as everyone made them out to be.   
  
Kenji got up and grabbed his bag, and made himself a part of the hustle and bustle out of the train station. As he pushed past people to taxi stops, he thought that if anything else, he really would like to have someone to love. Male or female, it didn't matter to him. He refused to recognize any sort of difference between liking the two: love was love, and he wanted it. He had a heart, he just didn't get the chance to refer to it that often.   
  
Over his shoulder he slung a overnight bag, and he clutched a letter addressed to Naoki Uyeda. Naoki Uyeda, not Kenji Kokuro, was to work in business management for Kaiba Corp. Looking back over the years, he must have had at least a dozen different names, names that people normally forget in the light of someone else's death. It allowed him to disappear, easily.  
  
The taxi pulled up and he hopped in. Taxis were like a foreign oddity back in Tokyo, and it occurred to him that Domino was probably a different city all together, different from anything else in Japan. He tapped the glass separating him from the driver. "Excuse me, sir, do you know the way to Kaiba Corporation?"  
  
The taxi driver grumbled some terrible swear words, and then answered, "Everyone knows where that damn Kaiba is."  
  
Kenji backed away slowly. "Can you...at least take me there?"   
  
"Yeah, yeah, sure..." The driver slammed on the gas, as if to get the trip to the corporation done and over with as soon as possible.   
  
----  
  
Kenji dropped some yen into the driver's waiting palm and thanked him profusely. The man's frown never disappeared, so Kenji gave up on trying to cheer him up.   
  
He turned around and gazed on his new, temporary place of employment. He wondered for a few moments what would happen to the place once the CEO was killed...it'd be difficult to just tear it down and get rid of all of those jobs. Taking a deep breath, Kenji dived into the world of corporate greed and competition, the world in which those whose toy companies couldn't compete would try to kill off their competition.   
  
He made his way to the front desk. The lady sitting there, a sweet, sixty year old secretary who went by the name of Ms. Inubashu, looked up from her computer.   
  
"May I help you, sir?"   
  
Kenji nodded and handed her the letter. "I'm Naoki Uyeda, new assistant advisor of business management?" He pulled out a pair of glasses and tried to fix his long, unruly hair as Ms. Inubashu examined the letter and typed the name into the computer's database.   
  
She handed the letter back to him. "Okay then, Mr. Uyeda. Your office and your new boss are both waiting on the thirty-seventh floor."   
  
Kenji nodded and bowed. "Arigatou."   
  
"No problem. The elevator's that way." She pointed behind him, and as Kenji turned to leave, she said, "And I would suggest that you fix your hair some. You know what they say about first impressions."  
  
Kenji nodded and smiled again. He entered the elevator and pressed the button for the thirty-seventh floor. It would be a pity to deprive that sweet woman of a job.   
  
He stepped out of the elevator, and turned into a maze of cubicles. He checked the panels for his name, and after going through what seemed like scores and scores of employees, he finally found his.   
  
It was plain and uniform, with a desk, file cabinet, and an iMac. G5 processor, he admired.   
  
"Naoki Uyeda?" a sharp voice demanded behind him.  
  
Kenji turned to see Seto Kaiba, his target, and the cutest CEO he had ever been paid to kill. "Yes?"  
  
"I am Seto Kaiba, your boss for as long as you don't anger me." He stood in the entrance of the cubicle, completely stiff, radiating coldness and indifference.  
  
Kenji decided to make a good impression, and he held out his hand. "Pleasure to meet you." It hung in the air for a few moments, with Kaiba looking at it as if it were a terrible curse word. Kenji put it away.  
  
"You are late. By five minutes." He glared directly through Kenji, as if he were throwing daggers.  
  
"Gomen nasai." Kenji bowed deeply.  
  
"Get up, you fool. Work begins for you at eight. Not eight o' one, not eight twenty-six. If you are even two seconds late, you can kiss your ass out of Kaiba Corp." He tossed a stack of file folders at Kenji's chest. "Here are the newest numbers of this company. I want a report by tomorrow at nine. Not --"  
  
"--not nine o' two, not nine forty-seven. I know, sir. I will."   
  
Kaiba glared daggers at his newest employee. "Then do it." He stormed out and back to wherever cold, angry CEOs go.  
  
Kenji sighed and fell into his chair, propping his feet onto the desk and staring at the ceiling. "And I only have a week?"  
  
-------------------------------  
  
I have a feeling that this fic will be very long.  
  
Reviews, appreciated. 


	3. Two

blazing star.  
  
A Yu Gi Oh fan fic by Heavens to Bikini Kill  
  
Two  
  
-----------------  
  
Kenji threw the twenty-five page report in Kaiba's inbox at eight thirty the next morning. He got to work at eight exactly, not eight oh two, not eight fifty seven. His hair was a mess, his eyes clouded and heavy, his tie not put on right, his shirt wrinkled. He had been up all night working on the report, going through impossible numbers and graphs. Upon closer examination, Kenji realized that all of the information that was in the folders could have been condensed to about ten pages. Without losing a shred of information. Kaiba must have done that on purpose.   
  
He felt his head dropping onto his keyboard, and he didn't care. He was too tired, only getting an hour of sleep. "Just five more minutes..." he muttered to himself. Damn that Kaiba for working him like a dog.   
  
Hm. "Damn that Kaiba." Seemed to be a rather popular phrase in Domino, and Kenji was picking up on it. He shifted his face so he could comfortably sleep on his computer.   
  
"Wake up, Uyeda." Kenji's head shot up and he grumbled audibly as he faced his boss. He forced a sleepy smile.  
  
"Yes, Mr. Kaiba?"   
  
Kaiba's cold, blue eyes attempted to pierce through Kenji, but to no avail. Kenji had met meaner, colder people before. "Why are you sleeping on the job?"  
  
No excuse in the world would work. "Gomen nasai, Mr. Kaiba."  
  
"Sorry will not make the cut here at Kaiba Corp, Uyeda." He lifted Kenji's chin, forcing them to see eye to eye. "You are very fortunate to have a job here. Let's make sure it lasts."   
  
They stayed there, looking at each other, Kaiba's hand still on Kenji's face. Kaiba broke the tension by looking away. "Your e-mail account is already set up. Your work for today is in the inbox. Good day." He left.   
  
Kenji forced himself to sit up straight, and positioned himself directly in front of his new iMac. "Damn that Kaiba."  
  
----  
  
Seto Kaiba couldn't remember the last time he had ever dreamed. Of course he wasn't some sort of machine, of course he had dreams, but he never remembered what happened in them. Dreaming was supposedly irrelevant. But the day that Naoki Uyeda arrived at Kaiba Corp, he had a dream. It was vivid, and it burned a spot into his mind.  
  
He dreamt of Uyeda. And cigarettes and music and a rather bright green light. He saw the sunrise and the sunset in a minute's time. And at the end Uyeda walked to him with a gun in his hand and a cancer stick in his mouth, saying something about a week. A week. Hm. He had checked his planner five times. Nothing was happening in a week.   
  
He walked past the cubicles and saw Uyeda sleeping the next morning. Nothing angered him more than people who used their employment time to sleep. But as he walked in to wake the man up, something caught his heart. Uyeda's face wasn't angelic or innocent or the like, but something seemed inherently good about his expression. Like he was some sort of star that the world was trying to destroy.  
  
So he woke him up and yelled at him for three minutes and walked off, all the time thinking about how peculiar Uyeda was. He came to the conclusion that he hated him. No one, other than Mokuba, was allowed to take his mid off of his work.   
  
He sat in his office, staring at the report that Uyeda turned in on time. Normally, he would just toss it in the wastebin; as if any of his employees had anything worthwhile to say about Kaiba Corp. But something captured him, and it had nothing to do with the extended estimates for the company's next five years.   
  
Uyeda, no matter how much Kaiba was supposed to hate him, was...beautiful?  
  
Kaiba quickly shook that thought out of his head. He was the great and mighty Seto Kaiba, not some hungry, love-sick fool. He had much better things to do than try to go after some employee who didn't deserve half of his paycheck. Uyeda was just an assistant...assistant...damn. Kaiba had forgotten the man's position already.   
  
He threw the paper in the wastebin as he left his office. A walk outside would create quick solvency for this pathetic virus in his mind.  
  
----  
  
Kenji lit a cigarette and inhaled deeply. Nothing was more stressful than working for Kaiba, and he had only been there for a day. His mother told him that he should stop. He never listened.   
  
He leaned carelessly against the mortar wall that was Kaiba Corp, smoking his life away, and not caring. He closed his eyes as he blew even more smoke in thought.  
  
"I didn't know you smoked, Uyeda."  
  
Kenji's eyes snapped open to see his temporary boss leaning against the wall right next to him. 'Damn you,' he thought, 'I don't want to talk to you. I want to kill you and get over it.' Instead, he said, "I didn't know you cared."  
  
"One would think," Kaiba started, "that you would have a little more respect for the man that pays you."   
  
"One would think that I actually gave a shit." Kenji turned to face Kaiba. "But guess what? I don't."  
  
Kaiba smirked. "You always act like this when you're smoking?"  
  
"Once again I ask you, why do you care?" Kenji smirked also, and puffed again.   
  
"Because," Kaiba leaned in a little too closely, "we just might be seeing more of each other."   
  
Kenji scooted further down the wall, and away from his target. "Recognize, Mr. Kaiba," he started. "Just because you pay me doesn't mean I like you."  
  
-----  
  
Oh shut up.   
  
No, really, shut up.   
  
And while you're at it, go fuck yourself.  
  
Maybe a car will smack you on the way back to your big house, Mr. Kaiba, and I won't have to touch you.  
  
'Cause Mr. Takashi wants me to torture you. He wants me to record your screams and your pleads for mercy. He's a pretty sick man.   
  
A sick man with enough money to get you killed.   
  
I don't want to kill you. I never wanted to kill anybody.  
  
But, like all other humans, I still do it. I don't even have to kill. I just do it. Even though I claim to hate it.   
  
I don't care how much money you make, I don't care how big you think your cock is, I don't care how many houses you own in America, but you just really need to check yourself.   
  
It's kind of late, Mr. Kaiba. You've already started the chain reaction. You wrecked yourself.   
  
And now you're coming over to my cubicle, giving me more work and demanding that I drop it off at your house by midnight. Bitch, you aren't going to be awake at midnight. Nobody who has an ounce of sense should be awake at midnight, or at least running off to some multimillionaire's mansion to amuse him with reports on what he already knows.   
  
Damn you, Kaiba. I'm going to pack some heat tonight. My Desert Eagle should do it. One in the heart will make it quick. I'll tell Takashi that you struggled so much that I had to kill you right off.   
  
It's such a pity.   
  
We've all gotta die, Kaiba, what's wrong with tonight? 


	4. Three

blazing star.  
  
A Yu Gi Oh fan fic by Heavens to Bikini Kill  
  
Three  
  
-------------  
  
He had to force his feet to move towards Kaiba's home.   
  
It was so damn...big. Almost ominous. Almost.   
  
The nine millimeter in his coat suddenly put on five more pounds, and he had to drag his mind and his weapon to the front gate. He lifted a two-ton finger and pressed a button.   
  
A tired, almost bored, voice yawned. "May I help you?"  
  
"Yes," he choked out. "I am Naoki Uyeda, here to drop off some work with Mr. Kaiba. He should be expecting me..." Kenji didn't want to flatter himself. Kaiba probably told his servants to prevent his lowly mortal of an employee from entering and fulfilling his assignment at all costs.   
  
Kenji checked his watch. Eleven forty five. Fifteen minutes early.   
  
He could hear the man nod. "Yes, I see. Please enter through the gate."  
  
Kenji did. He shuffled slowly through the home, keeping his eyes to the ridiculously clean carpet. It was a creamy white, Kenji noted, much like vanilla. Not that it mattered.  
  
The butler bowed deeply and pointed up the stairs. "Mr. Kaiba is waiting for you. Up the stairs, to the right, down the hall, first right, third door on your left."  
  
"Arigatou," Kenji bowed also and made his way up the winding staircase.   
  
The blocks of lead attached to the end of his legs clumped up the steps, and he looked at the crossroads at the top. The man said to take a right.   
  
The hall was devoid of all light, and Kenji could hear his heart beating. That was something that he could not explain. "I have killed many people in my past," he prayed to himself, "why does it seem like I shouldn't kill him?"   
  
First right.   
  
"I don't like killing people, but I'm being paid good money. I'm bound by a contract. I said I would kill Seto Kaiba, and if I go back on that I'm a dead man."   
  
He stared at the door. I do not want to kill Seto Kaiba. I have to kill Seto Kaiba. His eyes squeezed shut, and he gripped the door's knob.   
  
----  
  
"Uyeda." Kaiba didn't look up, and didn't turn in his seat.   
  
"You have your work everywhere, ne?" Kenji tried to make small talk in order to keep Kaiba distracted.   
  
The CEO didn't respond, and all Kenji heard was the constant, quick tapping of Kaiba's flying fingers on his keyboard.   
  
He held his gun, ready to pull it out. "Why did you have me come here, Mr. Kaiba?"   
  
Kaiba didn't answer for a few moments, taking the time to pull out a pack of cigarettes. He observed it in the light of his table lamp. "Interesting things, aren't they?" He smirked to himself. "They're so small...yet so dangerous. Possessing so much risk...death, even..."  
  
"Answer my question, if you will, sir."   
  
The CEO rose from his seat and walked slowly towards Kenji. "I've been dreaming about you." He lifted a long, slender finger to Kenji's face, under the pretense of stroking it. "I don't like you very much, but something compels me to --"  
  
"To die?" The gun was at Kaiba's chest.   
  
Kaiba's eyes widened with fear. "What is the meaning of this?"  
  
"Someone wants you dead, obviously." His eyes became mirrors.   
  
Kaiba chuckled softly, trying to hide his obvious fear. "And you are some sort of assassin, ne? It was partly obvious. Your application was too perfect."  
  
"Shut up."   
  
"Man of few words, are we?" Kaiba threw his hands up in defeat. "Fine. Kill me. Not much I can do anyway." He paused in thought. "But tell me, humor me, who hired you?"  
  
"Hoshiro Takashi."  
  
He smiled. "I knew it. That man could never compete." He squeezed his eyes shut. "I hope you have a silencer. I don't want Mokuba to hear." He waited.   
  
And as Kenji placed his finger over the trigger, time slowed to a crawl.   
  
Seto Kaiba was just another CEO.  
  
Seto Kaiba was a selfish CEO.   
  
Seto Kaiba was arrogant.  
  
Seto Kaiba had a little brother to provide for.  
  
Seto Kaiba had hundreds of employees to pay.  
  
Seto Kaiba was...  
  
Seto Kaiba was beautiful.   
  
The gun made its way back to the owner's pocket, and the hand that was previously holding it grabbed hold of the other man's collar.   
  
"Damn it, Kaiba," he growled, "You're coming with me."  
  
They both went off in a black car with nothing but a gun, two packs of cigarettes, and a lighter. 


	5. Four

blazing star.  
  
A Yu Gi Oh fan fic by Heavens to Bikini Kill  
  
Four  
  
---------------  
  
"Where are you taking me?" Kaiba mumbled, hoping not to irritate the assassin into shooting him.   
  
Kenji did not answer, and pulled out a cigarette.   
  
"Uyeda?"  
  
"Don't call me that," he snapped, lighting up.   
  
"Naoki, then?"  
  
"My name is not Naoki Uyeda. Obviously, you fool." He peered at the road through cigarette smoke.   
  
"Then what should I call you?"  
  
"Who ever said that you had to speak to me?"   
  
Kaiba fell silent, and pulled out a pack of cigarettes, fiddling with the wrapper. The crushing of plastic echoed off of Kenji's ears.   
  
"Are you going to smoke those, or what?"  
  
Kaiba smiled and put them away. "No. I don't really smoke. My little brother talked me out of it."  
  
"Hm." The assassin's lack of response cut Kaiba short.   
  
They rode for a few more minutes in silence.   
  
Kenji handed his half-smoked cigarette to Kaiba. "My name's Kenji."  
  
"Kenji." Kaiba fiddled with the cigarette. "I'll remember that."  
  
"Good for you." Kenji looked over at the younger man. "Are you going to smoke that, or what? It'll go out soon."  
  
Kaiba stared at it for a moment. A promise.  
  
He threw it out the window.   
  
"The hell was that for?"  
  
He refused to look the assassin in the eye. "Sorry. I can't."  
  
"Hm." Kenji pulled out another cigarette with one hand and lit it. "Whatever."   
  
They both remained silent for a few more moments. Kaiba filled the silence with another question. "So. Where are we going?"  
  
Kenji blew more smoke. "I can't kill you, Kaiba."  
  
"What?"  
  
He sighed deeply, and inhaled. Exhale. Smoke everywhere. "I've killed many people before. And yet I can't...I don't WANT to kill you."  
  
Kaiba had to smirk. "Why? Afraid you'll get caught?"  
  
"I've killed about seven other men just like you. Never been caught." The car filled once again with a thick silence.  
  
"Then w-why are you taking me?" Kaiba stammered.   
  
Kenji chuckled, but not in an amused fashion. "Kaiba, I don't like you at all. But you are drop-dead gorgeous. It'd be a shame to deprive the world of your eyes."  
  
The younger man smiled weakly. "Really?"  
  
"No, you fucking idiot," Kenji snapped right back. "You've got a little brother and hundreds of employees to provide for. I'm tired of making people suffer for my own profit."   
  
Kaiba snorted. He doesn't think that he can hurt me. I dislike him as well: he's the one who tried to kill me.  
  
----  
  
Just a few more hours with him. Just a few more.   
  
But do I have any idea what I'm going to do with him?   
  
Perhaps if I play something I won't worry so much. And maybe he will disappear.  
  
-Well I got a friend who's a man   
  
What man? The man who keeps me from the lonely  
  
He gives me what I need  
  
What you need? What you got?  
  
I need it all so badly  
  
Oh, anything I want   
  
He gives it to me  
  
Anything I want He gives it but not for free  
  
It's hateful-   
  
"What's hateful?" Oh God, he's talking again. Can't you shut up Kaiba, and be a good little lover?  
  
I meant hostage. He has to be a hostage. I won't take him as my lover, I scared the shit out of him already.  
  
Ignoring that, I don't like him anyway.   
  
It's The Clash.   
  
"Oh. Are they Irish?"  
  
They're British, you idiot.   
  
"Oh. Sorry, I didn't know."  
  
Good for you, you child.   
  
That's it. He's a child. Who murdered his stepfather for control of his company. He's a snotty nosed brat who just happens to inhabit an attractive body.   
  
I haven't killed him yet because I don't want to deprive his brother.   
  
It's three in the morning. Poor kid. In three more hours he's going to wake up to a panicking staff, wondering where their boss went.   
  
-And it's paid for  
  
And I'm so grateful to be nowhere-  
  
We're going to a hotel, Kaiba. In fact, we'll be going inn-hopping. If you're not dead in three days, Mr. Takashi will probably get five more thugs on our behinds. We'll both be torn limb from limb.   
  
-This year I've lost some friends  
  
Some friends? What friends?  
  
I dunno, I ain't even noticed-  
  
Tell me, Kaiba, do you have any friends that we're leaving behind?  
  
The moron shrugged in his moronic way. "No. I don't have any."  
  
Looks like we've something in common.   
  
-You see, I gotta go out again  
  
Again? My friend  
  
I gotta see that mainman-  
  
A seedy motel. It will do for the night. We're at least out of Domino.   
  
I hate the way that you turned up your nose at the sight of your temporary home, Kaiba. I could make it easier for you and put a bullet in your head.   
  
Settle down and make yourself at home. I've got to figure out what to do with you.   
  
-Anything I want  
  
He gives it to me  
  
Anything I want  
  
He gives it but not for free  
  
It's hateful  
  
And it's paid for  
  
And I'm so grateful to be nowhere-  
  
Four thirty seven in the morning and you fell asleep. I don't want to touch your hair.   
  
--------  
  
A/N: Song is "Hateful" by The Clash. The lyrics will make more sense to the story later. 


	6. Five

blazing star.  
  
A Yu Gi Oh fan fic by Heavens to Bikini Kill  
  
Five  
  
------------  
  
Kaiba woke up to find himself on a rotting bed in a seedy motel on the outskirts of Domino. As he rubbed sleep from his eyes, he looked over to see a tall man with long brown hair and glasses, puffing on a cigarette and looking out the window, a gun in his other hand.   
  
"Where am I?"  
  
The man turned and puffed. "You're awake."  
  
"I know that." Kaiba rolled out of bed and faced the man. "You're...Kenji."  
  
"You remember."   
  
Kaiba paused. "You tried to kill me."  
  
Kenji smiled and sat on the floor. "Not really. I was paid to kill you, yes. But I didn't actually attempt to pull the trigger."   
  
"Shut up, and get me home. Mokuba's going to have a fit..."  
  
"Sorry, Kaiba, can't do that." He finished the cigarette and pulled out another.   
  
"Why not?" he snapped.  
  
"Because if we go back to Domino and you're not dead, Mr. Takashi will kill us both. I'm sure you don't want to die. In fact," Kenji paused to puff on the cigarette once more, "Takashi's probably watched the news this morning. You're probably all over the headlines, you're missing. He's sent out people to find us by now."  
  
"We have to get back to Domino!"   
  
"Not likely. You're stuck with me. And we're leaving in two hours for another motel."  
  
Kaiba had to sit down, and he rubbed his forehead furiously. "What exactly are you going to do with me?"  
  
Kenji smirked and sucked on his cancer stick. Blowing the smoke across the bed in Kaiba's direction, he said, "I've got it all figured out."  
  
"Thank the gods."  
  
"Shut your mouth, baka. We're going to inn-hop all the way back to Tokyo. There, I'll give the police my contract. Takashi will be jailed, and you can go back home."  
  
"Two questions."  
  
"Shoot."  
  
"Why can't we just go right now, and won't you be arrested yourself?"  
  
Kenji had to smile again. "We can't go right now because we'll be remarkably easy to trace. And as for me being arrested...it'll be justice for all of those people I've killed..."  
  
"You're a noble man, Kenji."  
  
"I don't need your compliments, Kaiba."   
  
----  
  
We stayed there in the room for another half hour, Kaiba moping around and me going through my only pack of cigarettes. This entire plan was incredibly risky in nature, and I had to calm my nerves.   
  
The cigarettes weren't working. I crawled onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. Too many what ifs were floating in the air, and there weren't enough cigarettes in the world to make them die.   
  
Kaiba got tired of pacing and crawled right next to me.   
  
Oh God. Please make him reconsider. I don't like him.   
  
I think...I think I may love him.   
  
That isn't possible! It can't be. I've only known the boy (yes, he's only eighteen, he's nothing more than a boy) for less than a week.   
  
But, God, he's so beautiful.   
  
It was twelve thirty three when he kissed me.   
  
I had hardly any idea why he did. Perhaps he was thinking of his girlfriend (and there was something at the back of my head hoping that he didn't have one). Perhaps he wanted to annoy me as a penalty for snatching him away.   
  
Perhaps he loved me. Not likely.   
  
But I pushed all of that out of my head, and I allowed him to take control of my lips, my mouth, my heart. My eyes slowly shut as my mind floated into that mixed land of bliss and lust, hoping that this teenage CEO wasn't just a temporary intruder.   
  
My arms snaked around his waist by themselves, wanting to pull him as close as he could possibly be. I felt him sigh into my lips as he created art on top of me, as his mouth asked more and more out of me.   
  
He released me, or I released him, peering closely into my eyes.   
  
There was nothing I wanted more than to hold him there with me, on that dirty old bed in that terrible motel, for the rest of eternity. 


	7. Six

blazing star.  
  
A Yu Gi Oh fan fic by Heavens to Bikini Kill  
  
Six  
  
------------  
  
They drove, leaving that godforsaken motel behind them. In the car, a thick, dense silence existed, and it was content with swallowing any and all comfort between the two. Kenji looked right ahead at the road, not having any cigarettes to smoke, and Kaiba just looked out the window, not really paying attention to the open, green landscape.   
  
After fifteen minutes of enduring this suffocating quiet, Kaiba had to wrench his lips open, otherwise he would choke. "You're cold."  
  
Kenji rolled his eyes, and kept them on the road. "Whatever possesses you to say that?"  
  
"You kiss me and say nothing afterwards. What kind of a man are you?"  
  
He snorted in false contempt. "What do you -want- me to say then?"  
  
"A simple 'I love you' would do." Kaiba folded his arms and began to pout like the little boy he truly was.   
  
Kenji's eyebrows raised to the heavens, and his face seemed to slowly process what had just been said. The younger man stared and waited for a response as the assassin's brain chewed on that last spoken sentence slowly, savoring it, testing every morsel.   
  
Kenji laughed.   
  
Kaiba frowned. "What is so funny?"  
  
"You're behaving like a woman." Kenji snickered for effect as he changed lanes. "I hardly know you. You hardly know me. What has it been? Four, five days? Only a silly, insecure woman would demand that I say 'I love you'."   
  
"Excuse me? How dare you?" Kaiba raged. "I offered you my heart -- "  
  
"I never asked for it," Kenji refuted sharply.  
  
" -- But you didn't refuse it, either."  
  
"Got me there." Kenji smirked. "So, you want me to tell that I love you."  
  
"Unless it's not true, and that kiss was for nothing."  
  
"Womanish. Foolish." He paused. "Fine. I love you."  
  
Kaiba adopted Kenji's smirk. "That wasn't so hard, was it?" He faced the assassin. "I love you too."   
  
"Ugh." Kenji looked as though he had just finished watching a God-awful film of some inappropriate sort. "What do you get out of me saying that?"  
  
Kaiba stared. What kind of a fool was this man?  
  
Kenji pressed on. "I fail to see why you need to be told these things. We both already know that I can't live without you, even though we've only known each other for four and a half days."  
  
Kaiba smiled to himself, and looked back out at the window, no longer having to say anything.   
  
----  
  
Kenji pulled into an old, decaying gas station. "I hope you have to go. We're not making another stop until we get to the next motel."  
  
Kaiba unbuckled himself and climbed out of the vehicle. "When's that?"  
  
Kenji grinned evilly. "Another hundred kilometers or so."  
  
"Fuck you."   
  
"I wish you could, Seto. But here's not the place, and now's not the time."   
  
Kaiba laughed and walked with him into the convenience store.   
  
Kenji looked through the cigarettes as Kaiba grabbed packet after packet of sweets. The assassin looked up from some foreign Malboros. "I didn't think you'd be into all of that candy."  
  
"I'm not. But I need something that'll last for a few days."   
  
"Damn!" Kenji slapped himself on the forehead. "I've forgotten to feed you." He searched through his wallet and found not much. Using his account would be practically running into Takashi's hands. He looked longingly at the cigarettes. "But I really wanted those Malboros..."  
  
Kaiba pulled out something from his pocket and slapped it into Kenji's hands. "Here. I'll never smoke them."   
  
The assassin held them up to the light. "Malboro...? Hm." He turned to grab something that composed of actual food. "You give me everything I want, Seto."  
  
"But it's never for free. You're welcome, my love..." Kaiba muttered to himself as he went back to the sweets. A few more minutes of searching, he looked up. "Say, do you believe in true love?"  
  
"True love?" Kenji muttered as he lit up. "What's that supposed to mean?"  
  
"You know, soul mates and all of that cheesy romance movie stuff." He sat right in the middle of the tiny aisle, looking up at the assassin.   
  
Kenji sat next to him on the floor, puffing rather seriously. "Why do you ask?"  
  
"A long time ago," Kaiba began, staring at the ceiling, "I used to think that was a load of shit. I used to think that there was no such thing as love, especially that stuff where two people would hardly know each other and suddenly fall in love for no reason."   
  
"What interests me is that you thought there was no such thing as love, Seto."   
  
Kaiba sighed deeply. "It was when my parents died. Mokuba and I were sent off to an orphanage. I hated it. Then Gozaburo [sp?] Kaiba visited the orphanage, and I cheated at a game of chess to get him to adopt us."  
  
"And?" Kenji encouraged softly.  
  
"It was hell. Worse than anything anyone could imagine. He would force us to study and work twelve hours a day. We couldn't play, and if even our handwriting was too messy, we weren't allowed to sleep until we 'practiced' with a thousand lines. He even..." He broke off, tears forming in his eyes.   
  
"Don't worry about it. You don't have to continue." Kenji put out his cigarette and rested his head on top of Kaiba, rubbing his back softly.   
  
"Not now, but I will. I want you to know everything about me."  
  
"Womanish." Kenji spat again, but much softer this time around. "I assure you, you don't want to know anything about me. You'd hate it."  
  
Kaiba smiled, and allowed Kenji to wipe the optometrical faucets located on his face. "God. I really do love you. Somehow."  
  
Kenji smiled and lifted his chin. "Somehow." He leaned in for a kiss, ignoring the shocked look on the cashier's face.   
  
"Hey, let's pay for our stuff. We don't need Takashi finding us." Kaiba got to his feet and brushed himself off.   
  
Kenji pointed to the obscene amount of candy in the CEO's arms. "I don't have enough money for all of that."   
  
"Yeah, so, I do." He dragged the sweets to the counter and to the still shocked cashier.   
  
"I hope you carry cash. Using credit would be remarkably stupid."  
  
"Oh, shut up." Kaiba pulled out a fat wallet. "How much will it be?"  
  
"Nothing at all."   
  
They both looked up to see the cashier (a young man with short black hair and a strange bone earring) pointing an obscenely large rifle at them. Kaiba's initial reaction was to drop his sweets to the floor and put his hands to the air. Kenji only wanted to get out his gun without getting Kaiba shot.   
  
"The hell are you doing?" he snapped.   
  
The rather unattractive (upon closer examination) man grinned, showing only about five teeth in his mouth. "Mr. Takashi has been wondering why the great Seto Kaiba has been reported as missing, but not as dead." His eyes narrowed to cat-like slits. "And here he was hoping that his assassin had just done a good job."   
  
"Really?" Kenji mused. "Well, you can tell that twat that he can go suck his father's penis, because Kaiba isn't dying anytime soon, at my hands or at anyone else's."   
  
The man smiled even wider, if that were possible. "Wrong answer, Kenji Kokuro."  
  
Something heavy crashed on Kenji and Kaiba's heads, and all was black. 


	8. Seven

blazing star.  
  
A Yu Gi Oh fan fic by Heavens to Bikini Kill  
  
Seven  
  
-----------  
  
Seto Kaiba, CEO of Kaiba Corp, top duelist, and new lover of Kenji Kokuro, woke up tied to something made of wood. His mind, still blurry, told him it was a chair.   
  
He shook his head a bit to clear his mind's eye. Looking around closely, he found that he was in a warehouse of some sort, in the middle of nowhere. He didn't think that he was anywhere near Tokyo or Domino.   
  
The room was noticeably dark, and Kaiba had to squint in order to look around, only being able to see what was directly in front of him. Therefore, all that was in the warehouse (for Kaiba, at least) was a table and some assorted boxes.   
  
"Seto?" a voice whispered croakily. "Are you awake?"  
  
Something hard clashed awfully with flesh, and Kaiba cringed as he heard Kenji groan with anguish. Another voice barked something about no talking.   
  
The room stayed silent as Kaiba mulled the situation over. Takashi was obviously some sort of sadist. There was no definite idea on what he'd do to Kenji, but Kaiba knew that Takashi would not let either of them get out alive.   
  
The door wrenched open and Kaiba squinted even more as the sunlight nearly blinded him. The silhouette of a two tall, lanky men flanking a shorter, wider man formed in the doorway, and the strings of light all flicked on above his head.   
  
Kaiba eyes once again had to adjust, and he did not like the sight he saw. "Takashi!"   
  
A large, balding man with enormous glasses and an awful smirk looked right back at Kaiba. As Kaiba struggled with his binds, the smile grew and grew until Kaiba could see a mouth full of yellow, rotting teeth.   
  
Takashi spoke. "What do we have here? The great Mr. Kaiba is...powerless."  
  
The room echoed with slow, measured laughter as Takashi's thugs joined in.   
  
He lifted a hand and the laughter stopped. "You will find, Mr. Kaiba, that nothing is more effective than ruthlessness."  
  
"You mean killing people you can't compete with?" Kaiba growled.   
  
Takashi smiled even more. "Hm. Jealous?"  
  
"Not of a murdering twat like you."   
  
"Perhaps it's because I was able to get the yakuza on my side..."  
  
"Oh, so now you have to resort to organized crime just to make a profit?" Kaiba snarled. "Not too impressive, Takashi. Tactics of an overly desperate man."   
  
"Don't flatter yourself, Kaiba." He pointed to the left. "You will also find that the odds are all in my favor. Examine carefully the state of your...boyfriend."  
  
Kaiba saw Kenji, matted hair and bleeding, chained to a wall by his wrists. "What do you want with him? He has no quarrel with you!"  
  
Takashi clucked. "Silly boy. Mr. Kokuro and I had an agreement, a contract if you will. He violated the terms of the contract, therefore he must meet retribution." He stroked his first chin thoughtfully. "I would even go as far to say that it's your fault."  
  
"You don't understand love, Takashi, and for that I pity you."   
  
Takashi chuckled, and his stomach rolls quaked. "Don't serve me that. You die tonight, Kaiba." He laughed even harder, and he signaled to his yakuza that it was time for them to leave.  
  
The door slammed behind them, and the only light left was that of the waning sun through the window.   
  
"S-seto..." Kenji mumbled. "A-are...a-are you alright?"  
  
Seto smiled sadly. "Don't worry about me. You need help."   
  
"Fuck that. It's my fault you're here."   
  
"We could get into that, but now's not the time."  
  
Kenji paused carefully. "Seto, you can get out of here."  
  
"Don't shit me like that."   
  
"No, I'm serious. I looked around the room while they were beating me. There's a table only three feet away from where you are, and a box cutter's on it."   
  
"Shut up, Kenji. I won't be able to get you out of here."   
  
"Will you just forget about me?! Damn it, Seto --" Kenji stopped and cringed as pain coursed through his veins.   
  
"Kenji..." Kaiba whispered. Oh, how he wished to touch him at that moment!  
  
"Don't...don't be stupid. I know you can shift over to that table and get the box cutter."  
  
"I won't. I..can't leave this place without you."  
  
"Damn it, Seto. Even if I could leave with you, Takashi will still hunt me down. I don't have the money to get some sort of security detail."  
  
"You...you can live with me! I'll spend whatever it takes to keep us safe together," Kaiba pleaded desperately.   
  
Kenji sighed. "You and I both now that that will never work. Seto, please. Don't try to make this hard."   
  
"No. I will not leave without you."  
  
"Do not draw this out any longer. We only have at most two hours of daylight left...Takashi will come to kill us both...he'll probably torture you...I can't stand that..."  
  
"But --"  
  
Kenji gritted his teeth as he shot, "Leave. Now."   
  
Kaiba couldn't see the box cutter through his tears as he dragged his chair to the table. Struggling for a while, he grabbed hold of the blade and carefully cut his way through the rope. After cutting himself a few times, his hands were free. He went to work on the foot binds.   
  
But he didn't get up from the chair.  
  
"Kaiba, bakayaro! Get out of here!" Kenji shouted.   
  
"I will not! I love you too much for that!" Kaiba shouted right back.   
  
"Don't be so damn stupid...please, Seto. I don't want you to die. Not yet." Kenji couldn't wipe his eyes, and streams flowed down his face.   
  
"I promise you, I will get out of here. But not yet..." Kaiba whispered as he walked to his chained lover. "Gods, Kenji, what have you done to me? I'm so weak around you..."  
  
"Womanish..." Kenji mumbled, and he chuckled. "Seto, you've got to give me what I want. And I want you to get out of here in one piece."  
  
"It's not for free, Kenji." Kaiba knelt down beside and stroked his chin.   
  
"Then what do I have to do to convince you to leave?"  
  
"A kiss." Kaiba took over Kenji's dry, chapped lips.   
  
"Damn it, Seto," Kenji mumbled into Kaiba's mouth, "I've had the shit beat out of me...I'm too tired for this."  
  
"No, you're not."   
  
Kenji only answered by kissing him back. As their lips merged, the world melted around them, and all they could think about was each other, and what they wanted, and what they knew was the truth. Kenji tugged constantly and hopelessly at the chains around his wrists, and that only made Kaiba even more sad, and he wanted to save his own life even less.   
  
Kaiba wrapped his arms around Kenji's neck and held him, rocking back and forth. The former assassin sighed deeply. "I love you more than you will ever know."  
  
"I think I'm going to cry," Kaiba mumbled.   
  
"Please, don't. I just might laugh at you." Kenji smiled through his tears as Kaiba brushed his hair away from his face. "Gods, we're acting like a couple from one of those romance books."   
  
"Oh, shut up, Kenji Kokuro."  
  
"It's hateful, Seto Kaiba." Kenji had to smile again. "I could say your name all day. This has been really drawn out. Get out of here."  
  
Kaiba kissed Kenji's forehead delicately. "I'll come back for you."  
  
This time, Kenji didn't argue.  
  
----  
  
My sins have caught up with me tonight. It's about time, God, where were you when I was killing so many men, so many women?  
  
I'm hearing footsteps crunching against the gravel, and each step seems to be measured, a march to my death.   
  
So as I wait for Takashi's yakuza thugs to destroy me in anger of Seto Kaiba's escape (and their pending arrest, I know he'll have it done), I think I should like to try to make things up with You.   
  
God, my primary point of order is as thus: why would You let me get away with all of this? Was it in Your Divine Plan to have me torn apart in a decaying warehouse in the middle of nowhere in Japan? I'm so sorry, God, that this happened. I honestly don't know how I got here.   
  
In addition, Sir, I'd like to take this time to apologize. I've ruined Seto Kaiba's life. No, really, God, I have. He should have never met me. I should have never gone to Domino. I should have risked it and stayed in Tokyo. Hell, I would have been willing to move out to America just to spare Kaiba all of this hell. Nobody deserves to go through what I put him through. Can you do me a favor, God, and somehow make sure that he can just forget me once he gets back home?   
  
The door has opened, and Takashi's digusting smile has been wiped off of his face. He's forgotten all logic as he's pointing at me, screaming at me, accusing me of somehow letting Kaiba escape.   
  
Beating me won't work, you damn pig.   
  
Gods, Seto. I want you too much. You've eaten out my insides, this hurts so much to think that I won't see you for (hopefully) a few more decades. Seto...please, don't come back. Run.   
  
I've been preparing for this moment all of my life.  
  
I think I've been forgiven. Are there any cigarettes in heaven? 


	9. Coda

blazing star.  
  
A Yu Gi Oh fan fic by Heavens to Bikini Kill  
  
----------  
  
Coda  
  
I never saw Kenji's corpse.   
  
I never got to hold him as he was dying in my arms. I never got to kiss his forehead one last time as the darkness took his life away. I never got to scream to the skies, to God, that I loved Kenji more than anything else in the world and that I would do anything, give anything, to bring him back.   
  
I got back to Domino, somehow, and the first thing I did was call the police. They stormed Takashi's buildings, his homes. There was nothing, nobody there. And they weren't about to start messing with the yakuza just because some assassin was killed.   
  
No one was arrested. I was told to just go back to running my corporation.   
  
There is no such thing as justice.   
  
Mokuba was ecstatic to see me home again, and I couldn't bring myself to tell him what had happened. A little boy shouldn't have his heart broken like that.   
  
At times, I pray to God that Kenji's still alive, and that he's just hiding in somewhere like Egypt, biding his time so that he could return to Domino and we could be a real couple. And then afterwards, I cry in the restroom, knowing the difference between fantasy and reality.  
  
There are rules of literature, and I believe that they apply in real life. For example, a tragedy is more than just a series of unfortunate events. The protagonist (better known as the "good guy") is supposed to have something called a "tragic flaw", a mark on his character that creates his downfall. Macbeth had a tragic flaw: he was easily influenced, particularly by his wife. Julius Caesar had a tragic flaw: he was far too ambitious. Even Gatsby was far too romantic and stuck in his fantasy world.   
  
Kenji was never a bad person, and I do believe this. But he did have a tragic flaw: he was desperate for love.   
  
And there are a lot of times when I wish he wasn't so desperate to use his heart. At times I wish he had been cold, uncaring. I would die just to keep Kenji on this earth.  
  
This world desperately needs people like Kenji. I define him to this day as a blazing star, a person who knows what he needs, what everyone else needs. A person who knows what is right and wrong, and for at least one day before he dies, he will do what is entirely right. He knew himself, he knew everyone else.   
  
The world possesses human characteristics: it refuses what it needs. That is why Kenji was crushed and scattered. That is why the world was so intent on devouring him and digesting him with stomach acids of hate and greed and violence.   
  
At night, I turn off my computer, put Mokuba to bed, and excuse the service detail, giving them more time to spend with their family. I go to the balcony and look carefully at the black canvas of suns and solar systems that are so far away from us. I see Kenji's face, a face that I only looked on for seven days, at most, and I feel more alive than any drug could give.   
  
If anyone knew what happened in that week, they would tell me that I'm just brooding, getting over death. That in a few years time, I would probably marry a girl like Shizuka (I can't stand her) or Anzu (she's with Yugi Motou), and have a few kids and forget that terrible, murdering man who just so happened to take my heart with him to his shallow grave. I doubt it. I believe in True Love now, and that green light that Gatsby once strived for. I don't care if I can never reach it.   
  
The Laws of Matter state that just as how matter cannot be created from nothing, it cannot be reduced into nothing. I think that is what keeps me from going around the bend. No matter what the world does, no matter who it sends to earth to kill and destroy, it can never truly annihilate my own blazing star.  
  
[end.] 


End file.
